A band or solo artist releases new music after a while. You’re sitting down with headphones and taking a close listen. You notice that something is off. That band that you liked because they were heavier than a black hole is now softer than your pillow. Or that artist that you liked for being catchy is now experimenting with things that put you off. Either way, you don’t like the direction they’re going in. You feel betrayed by your favourite artist, without any consideration for what they want.
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One of my favourite examples of this came last year when Architects released The Classic Symptoms of a Broken Spirit. The first single released, titled When We Were Young, was met with confusion from diehard fans. Architects are known as a djenty metalcore band and that song is pretty much a pop song. Some people weren’t happy with this change. These people would end up not listening to the album.
Another example is when Bring Me The Horizon released Amo back in 2019. Before then, they were pretty heavy. They started off as a deathcore band, slowly shifting to metalcore and alternative rock. People were quick to notice how poppy the songs are. Even in the song Heavy Metal, one of the lyrics was ‘Cause some kid on the ‘gram said he used to be a fan, but this s*** ain’t heavy metal.” They were pretty self-aware when they released that album. They know they’re not the band they used to be.
Sometimes these changes have to happen. Xandria, a symphonic metal band from Germany, got a new singer. Unlike their previous vocalists, she has a poppy voice rather than operatic soprano vocals like the previous two or even the gothic soft voice of their first vocalist. People were quick to notice the shift in sound when the band released new songs last year. Instead of the symphonic power metal or gothic metal sound they did before, they started going in a more pop-rock direction. People started calling it generic and I can’t disagree, but if that’s what the band wants, then they should be allowed to.
These bands aren’t obligated to stick with one sound forever. Life would be boring to do the same thing forever. If bands want to start going in a drastically different direction, then they should be allowed to.